There’s one more thing I’m seriously worried about, going forward, after the inauguration:
I have little hope for the confirmation of any of the Cabinet positions in a GOP Senate. There’s nothing out there to prevent Moscow Mitch from simply tabling the nominations, much as he did to Merrick Garland at the end of the Obama administration.
By not confirming them, they end up with ‘acting’ in their title which gives them less prestige/standing, and legally, as we found with Trump’s administrators, they can only serve for a limited time before they have to be replaced. This will create an unstable revolving door in the Cabinet, which will not be helpful - exactly what McConnell and the GOP want.
This is why the GA runoffs are so important. The next two years will be a nightmare for the Cabinet, if Mitch has his way.
I predict Mitch will pick his fights (judicial nominees, legislation), & that Biden’s cabinet picks will be confirmed without much issue. A 52-48 majority isn’t enough cushion for total warfare if the 3-4 towers of jello (Mittens, Collins, Murkowski, Sasse) push back.
I’ve wondered whether he’d be brazen enough to do that. With the Garland nomination, he at least had an explanation for what he was doing - Obama was going to be replaced by the next election. Obviously that wasn’t an actual justification, particularly since the election was almost eight months away, but the explanation was at least semi-plausible.
But with Biden’s nominations, what possible rationale could McConnell trot out? That the election was rigged, and that Biden isn’t really the President? That would put him firmly into the “loon” category. And I think the public outrage would be epic.
The more I think about it, I think the rationale is this:
McConnell to Biden: stop any investigations in to Elaine’s business and I’ll confirm whomever you put forward; once any investigation starts, all bets are off. I don’t care. I hold all the cards.
Miller will be there until he hears the chopper landing on the lawn. Putting papers in front of him, and whispering him to sign them. When 45* leaves he’ll walk into a well-paid media job and continue to foment mischief with lies.
